Haggerty: Boston Bruins Screaming Out For A Roster Shake-Up | BHN+

BOSTON – It’s clear at this point that the Boston Bruins are running out of answers for questions that simply aren’t going away.

The Bruins dropped to 4-6-2 in their last 12 games with a thoroughly unimpressive 4-0 shutout loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden that underscored a cavalcade of recurrent problems with the Black and Gold.

Some of it could be explained away by pretty significant injuries that have knocked Kevan Miller, Jeremy Lauzon, Brandon Carlo, Ondrej Kase out of the lineup, had Brad Marchand playing at much less than 100 percent and subtracted Jake DeBrusk on Saturday afternoon as well due to COVID-19 protocols. And the Bruins are in the thick of a difficult portion of their schedule where they are playing seven games in 11 days, including back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the start of next week.

So, there will be some level of mental and physical fatigue expected along with the cost of doing business, but that’s the same with every other of the 31 teams in the league. The stink bomb that the Boston Bruins dropped on the ice on Saturday afternoon seemed to be much more than fatigue, or the war of attrition catching up to the Black and Gold due to the injuries.

Instead, it was lifeless hockey from beginning to end with terrible execution, zero energy and special teams that were so bad the power play had Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy slamming his whiteboard on the bench in the middle of the second period.

Bruins power play not pleasing Butchie (or anybody else) today https://t.co/1HkYSsn4Lg

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) March 13, 2021

Sure, the Bruins gave up 13 goals in two straight losses to the Rangers and Islanders in New York a couple of weeks ago, but the totally non-competitive Saturday matinee loss felt even worse because it was a giant zero in the effort and compete department.